Rafters have close call on Livermore Falls

HOLDERNESS — Rescue crews helped save a party of five people who got into trouble during a rafting exhibition on the fast-moving Pemigewasset River Thursday afternoon.

According to Holderness Deputy Fire Chief Earl Hanson, the five were floating down the river on inexpensive plastic tube rafts and apparently went over Livermore Falls as the river flows from Campton, through Plymouth to Holderness.

.Rescue teams were called to the river below the falls, where five people were reported to be in the water.

Two women who were on the raft managed to make their way to shore.

The three men in their party were in the water longer, to the point where members of local dive teams were summoned to join the search...As divers prepared to enter the water, all members of the party were accounted for, Hanson said.

Rescuers saved one man by lowering a rope from a perch above the swift-moving river to the man as he held onto a rock in the river...At least one of the adventurers was taken to Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth for evaluation

The Pemigewasset is running faster than usual because of a series of rainstorms in recent weeks, officials said...At least seven people have drowned in that section of the river in the past decade.